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Section 62: Will may be revoked or altered

Indian Succession Act • Official Statutory Text & Practice Guide

Statutory Regulation
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Competent Court / Tribunal
Act 1925
Section 61 All 391 Sections of Indian Succession Act Section 63

Legal Commentary & Landmark Judgments: Section 62

Section 62 enacts the cardinal principle of testamentary law that a will is inherently ambulatory and may be revoked or altered by the maker at any time when he is competent to dispose of his property by will.

  • Core Legal Standard: Section 62 enshrines the defining attribute of a will: its ambulatory nature.
  • Statutory Rights & Obligations: Unlike a contract, conveyance, or gift deed which takes effect in praesenti and creates irrevocable vested rights, a will confers no legal interest during the testator's lifetime.

It speaks only from the date of the testator's death ( voluntas testatoris est ambulatoria usque ad extremum vitae exitum ).

Consequently, an individual retains the unalienable right to revoke, cancel, amend, or alter their will at any moment, as many times as they desire, provided they continue to possess testamentary capacity under Section 59. Even if a will explicitly contains a clause declaring that it is 'irrevocable' or that the testator 'covenants never to alter it', such a clause is completely void and legally ineffective. The testator remains fully empowered under Section 62 to execute a new will revoking the earlier instrument entirely.

Key Landmark Precedents:
  • Venkatesh v. Pattabhirama, AIR 2003 SC 156: The Supreme Court reiterated that a will is ambulatory and revocable by its very nature under Section 62. Any recital in a will that purports to make it irrevocable is wholly repugnant to the character of a testamentary instrument and void.
  • Mathai Samuel v. Eapen Eapen, (2012) 13 SCC 80: The Supreme Court held that the decisive test distinguishing a will from a deed of settlement is that a will can be revoked at any time by the testator under Section 62, whereas a settlement creates an irrevocable right in praesenti.
Legal Commentary:

Section 62 is the ultimate legal shield when defending the validity of a subsequent will against an earlier 'irrevocable' will. In joint wills or mutual wills between spouses, a party may contractually agree not to revoke; however, even in mutual wills, Section 62 permits the testator to revoke the will at law, though a court of equity may impose a constructive trust upon the assets to enforce the underlying contractual agreement.

Section 61 All 391 Sections of Indian Succession Act Section 63